Morning Minute | The Pudgy Penguin Takeover
TylerD's Market Summary
One PFP project is clearly standing out from the rest in this bear market, and trying to pave a path forward for other projects to follow.
🐧 Pudgy Penguins Push Boundaries of Brand Expansion
Luca Netz (Pudgy Penguins owner) made a strong statement on Thursday:
"Pudgy Penguins is going to be the brand that brings people from all over the globe and all walks of life into our industry. These moments are not moments just for Pudgy Penguins they're a moment for anyone who believes in a consumer-facing industry powered by Blockchain."
And he's backing up those words with actions, including 2 major expansions in the past 2 days.
What happened?
The Pudgy Penguins brand made 2 marquee announcements this week, following their groundbreaking news from last week of launching Pudgy toys in 2,000 Walmarts across the U.S.
This week's update:
-Toys are expanding into Europe, launching in every Smyth's in the U.K.
-They've teased a new collab with Last Crumb, the LA-based cookie company
Not much is known about the cookie collab other than what Luca told us in a spaces yesterday (that they may be pricey so expect some sticker shock, and he's not asking any collector to buy).
The toys are another story.
Luca is laser-focused on toy sales right now, with the Walmart pilot in full swing. The team needs to meet an 80% threshold of a key sales ratio to get picked up for renewal and extension, carrying them through the holidays.
Why It Matters
Pudgy Penguins are setting up the playbook right now for how NFT projects can go mainstream, especially those with "cute" IP.
If they're successful, they've charted the course for many to folow in their success.
Beyond brand expansion into mainstream (which is the team's core focus), the other question so-often tied to the Pudgy toys of "what does this mean for holders" is being answered in real time.
Pudgy Penguins are outperforming every other PFP in the NFT market right now.
They're up to 5.5 ETH, +20% on the week, and now solidly in 3rd on the PFP leaderboard behind just Punks and Apes (Mutants are next at 5.05).
The market cares about toys success, especially in a bear market where it seems (on the surface) like not many teams are doing much.
The toys matter.
And Luca is leading the way, continuing to push the brand out to a larger audience.
We should all be cheering for him in this pursuit - more than toys are on the line.
👥 Friend Tech Trend Tracker
Sentiment has recovered as prices rebound, but a shiny new competitor stole attention and volume.
Let's start with the numbers.
Here are some of the core Friend Tech metrics for 10/6 and their day-over-day change:
- Return users: 8,591-> 7,688 (-10%)
- Daily Buy volume: $4.24M -> $4.62M (+9%)
- Total Volume: $12.3M -> $7.5M (-39%)
- TVL: $45.4M -> $46.5 (+2.4%)
- Highest key: Vombatus 8.28 -> 8.28 (even)
*TVL in ETH terms 27,700 -> 28,500 ETH (+3%)
Volume clearly fell hard on the day, not untypical for a Thursday snapshot day.
Buyers greatly outweighed sellers on the day though, sending keys back up and in the green.
One splashy new joiner hit the scene last night with Daily Loud. With 2.5M followers on X, they're one of the biggest mainstream accounts to come to FT, even tweeting out their top key holder's handle to their followers (0.46 ETH this morning).
They did receive light fud for pulling their funds off the platform, but this should be the expectation for big brands like this - they aren't coming to 3,3 with you.
The big story on the day though was not out of FriendTech but its latest competitor Stars Arena.
After starting the morning with FUD around a slow drain (which the team fixed), Stars soared in the second half of the day.
Stars TVL doubled to $2.14M on major inflows, with $2.7M in total volume (cumulative volume now up to $13.1M).
Now the the question becomes - will FT re-take the spotlight post airdrop today? Or will Stars steal the show this weekend?
Regarding today's airdrop, TVL on FT was about the same week-over-week, so users should expect similar points/ETH as last week pending portfolio makeup. But we will see if/how they shake up the formula.
Happy airdrop day everyone!
🚚 What else is happening in NFTs?
Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:
- Trading volume fell 15% to $6.3M (3,900 ETH) on Thursday, while the leaderboard saw mostly green
- Contractual Obligations by Matt Kane led top movers, soaring 73% to a whopping 5.8 ETH floor after stirring up drama this week in the SuperRare circles
- OpenSea faced backlash yesterday after news spread that its new OpenSea Studio program comes with a 10% fee for the platform, re-sparking the debate of OpenSea vs creators
- Yuga's HV-MTL players can soon battle the boss and evolve their HVs as Season 6 approaches
- Zora will now allow creators to mint NFTs onchain for free, shifting the initial gas cost to the first minter
- DraftKings Reignmakers PGA DFS Showdown packs debuted Thursday night ahead of the initial Reignmakers showdown contest starting this week
🌎 Around Crypto and Web3
A few other Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:
- The crypto market mostly chopped on Thursday; BTC even at $27,700; ETH -0.4% at $1,630; SOL -1% at $23.30
- AVAX popped 5% to $10.70 on the back of Stars Arena success (TVL and transaction volume booming)
- VeeFriends is getting ready for Halloween, releasing a new set of pins and Super Stickers ahead of the holiday
🚀 NFT Total Volume
- BAYC (639 ETH, 26.35 ETH Floor)
- Milady (357 ETH, 1.92 ETH)
- CloneX (307 ETH, 1.13 ETH Floor)
- Pudgy Penguins (253 ETH, 5.46 ETH)
- DeGods (235 ETH, 3.12 ETH)
📈 NFT Floor Price Increase
- Contractual Obligations (73%, 5.8 ETH Floor)
- Bored Ape Golf Club (36%, 0.08 ETH)
- Kitaro World (36%, 0.14 ETH)
- DeepBlack (22%, 0.89 ETH)
- Terraforms (13%, 1.4 ETH)
🗓 Upcoming NFT Mints and Reveals
It's a slower day to end the week, highlighted by OSF's latest drop with Foundation called "The Surprise." VeeFriends and Notable Pepes are also on the card.
See the full list and dive in for more details with Swizzy's daily mint monitor.
- VeeFriends Skilled Skeleton (12:00 p.m. ET)
- OSF x Foundation - The Surprise (1:00 p.m. ET)
- Notable Pepe Series 4 (4:20 p.m. ET)
Enjoy this write-up and/or want to sponsor the Morning Minute? Follow along with me on Twitter @tyler_did_it or reach out via email tyler.warner@luckytrader.com.
For all volume and floor price data, see Lucky Trader's Project Rankings page.
For all upcoming mints, see Lucky Trader's NFT Calendar page.
